"Apple Inc reported quarterly revenue that slightly missed Wall Street expectations as sales of its flagship iPhone came in below target, sending its shares down more than 4 percent. The world's largest technology company shipped 47.8 million iPhones, lower than the roughly 50 million that Wall Street analysts had predicted. Sales of the iPad came in at 22.9 million in the fiscal first quarter, about in line with forecasts." I'll leave the financials to the experts, but one thing that stood out to me: Apple sold 4.2 million Macs, almost a million below expectations. How much of a future does desktop computing have at Apple? Update: The NYT/Reuters changed the title during the night. Fixed it.

There’s some time now I’ve noticed a trend about comments in OSNews (Specifically related to Apple)

There are (and have always been) Apple lover and this is good! People talk best about products they love and their comments are often very interesting.

The new trend, which is really sad, is the few very noisy fanatics who complain every time about any news concerning Apple that isn’t an absolute glorification of an Apple product / leader / stock / Whateverwithanapple. There’s a very good website for that... It’s MacDailNews (sorry for citing another website Thom ).

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So now my 2 cent about Apples actual situation (Ohhhh. A new self proclaimed analyst ):

Disclaimer: As I heard that the situation is different in the US, let’s say that the following points aims the rest of the world

- Appple makes very good products

- Apple has a good overall experience for those who like the Apple’s ecosystem

- Apple’s reputation WAS very good until beginning 2012

- Apple is more and more seen by the masses as a company who lives through litigation and no more through innovation (Purely Subjective). This point is important as a lot of Apple’s user appreciate the “hype” factor around this brand. And some of them even buy these products only because of the hype factor.

- Apple had the monopoly for good phones and tablets until beginning to mid 2012

- Since mid 2012 there are very serious opponents on the market. And yes, quality hardware (Phones/Tablets) running with Android > 4.1 are at the same level (if not better) than Apple’s products (Personal preferences aside). There are also other very good products than Android but they can’t be considered as a serious threat actually to the market leaders.

- Phone/Tablet market is still a growing market (and that shouldn’t end soon). That means that a company selling more than the previous year is nice... But it’s not the most important... What is relevant is the sell growth compared to the market growth. If a company sells 5% more in a market that is 50% bigger and another company fills the gap this is a concern for investors (Numbers are just for the example and doesn’t reflect any reality).

- Jobs was the symbol of Apple’s genius. I say symbol as I know that all the work is done by the engineers and they haven’t vanished... But well... He is (was) a symbol with all its implication

So No... Apple is not doomed, but yes, Apple is in a longterm difficult situation. It’s not fair for them but in their actual situation, if they don’t come up with a new revolution soon and/or if they don’t preserve the hype factor around their Brand in a way or another, the Joe user will go toward other products.

Apple curious people, lovers and fanatics will always stay even in the worst case scenario, but that won’t be enough for investors.

So now... For the fanboys, feel free to bash this comment as much as you want. (I’m Zen )